Do tics generally run in the family?

[Pamela Kay]

As I am thinking this I guess part of me knows it is true since my husband and middle son both have them. Now I am afraid my daughter will have them too. She is now doing this nose twitching thing. Then I am also concerned that she will have ocd as she is only three and has a problem with germs. She does not like to kiss anyone and will not share food or drink with anyone. I am trying to get her over that and it worked a bit by explaining that all germs are not bad and it has helped a bit but she is still a bit hesitant. When my oldest son was about the same age he had a eye twitch but it went away within a few weeks. My daughter has had this for about a couple months. She also complains quite a bit that her belly hurts and at first I just thought she was just complaining but now wonder if she has a food problem. She was born with a kidney disorder making her more prone to urinary tract infections so for a little over a year of her life she had antibiotics daily. She had surgery right after her first bday and has not had any antibiotics since she was 14 months old. Then, also when she was a baby she had a bad sore throat that I never got checked out but it was so bad that she stopped sucking her thumb. Now part of me wonders if it was strep.

 

Since I am going through all this with my son I wonder if I am just being paranoid. The thought of going through this again scares me.

[kim]

Pamela Kay,

 

I sure understand your anxiety, but, take it from a Mom with a 2nd child affected, if it does turn out that your daughter is experiencing OCD or a mild tic, you will survive it. I think you will be much quicker to recognize little symptoms that may just pass without any real problem too though. The second child benefits from everything that you have learned previously. Mom suffers! We notice everything with younger children IMO, that we wouldn't have paid any attention to, if it wouldn't have been for the prior experience. The best advice i can offer is to listen to your mommy signals and follow your instincts. Does your daughter crave any particular foods? Sugar, carbs, dairy? Does she have dark circles? Are stools normal? Does the germ phobia go in cycles, or is it always present?

 

Three, seems so young to have the germ concept! I bet your going to have a smart little girl on your hands!

[Pamela Kay]

Thanks Kim!

 

She is actually almost four but this germ thing has been going on for sometime now. It does not go in cycles it is pretty constant. She is getting a lot better now that I explained that all germs are not bad. She has not wiped my kisses off since.

 

The only thing she really ever craves is brownies. She would rather have sweets than "real food" but what kid wouldn't? Everything is normal as far as her stools and she does not have darkness under her eyes. I guess the only thing that worries me is the nose twitch thing now.

[kim]

Pamela Kay,

 

I'm glad to hear that everthing else seems so well. I guess we are probably in different situations here, as my youngest son clearly turned a corner with diet at around 1 year. He not only craved sweets, he eliminated almost everything that wasn't sweet. He also had that red botty ring, that is often discussed in relationship to candida overgrowth.

 

I do want to mention one thing, because it is something that i have done so much research on. Please be careful about vaccines. Your daughter will probably be due for her second MMR at around 5. Please be aware that the CDC website says that the 2nd MMR is not a booster. It is given to catch the 3 to 5% (i'm almost certain that's the number, you may want to verify) that did not develope immunity from the first one. Most who read here know that i have some real concerns about todays vaccine schedule. Please be aware that you can have titers drawn to see if she has what they consider adequate immunity already, assuming she received the first one a 1 year old.

[Tattoomom]

Pamela Kay,

 

 

I do want to mention one thing, because it is something that i have done so much research on. Please be careful about vaccines. Your daughter will probably be due for her second MMR at around 5. Please be aware that the CDC website says that the 2nd MMR is not a booster. It is given to catch the 3 to 5% (i'm almost certain that's the number, you may want to verify) that did not develope immunity from the first one. Most who read here know that i have some real concerns about todays vaccine schedule. Please be aware that you can have titers drawn to see if she has what they consider adequate immunity already, assuming she received the first one a 1 year old.

 

I want to second this advice. We did a titer check and our son was immune to the MMR viruses so we declined the second shot.

 

We homeschool, so the shot thing is not an issue for us but I do know of people who were given a hard time as the public school system here does not accept a titer check as a replacement for the shot.

[kim]

Tatoomom...say that isn't true! A school that won't accept proof of titers? I have never heard of that one! Has anyone challenged it that you know of?

 

I guess when Pamela Kay said

 

She also complains quite a bit that her belly hurts and at first I just thought she was just complaining but now wonder if she has a food problem.

 

 

It made me think back on what I may or may not have done differently with my boys, with the mild symptoms that her daughter has, and the MMR popped right to mind. By the time my 2nd son came along, we did have a family history (his older brother) so regardless of what may or may not have been a trigger, genetics has to be involved, i believe. I guess we fall somewhere inbetween family history and no family history.

 

Pamela Kay,

 

I think the difference btwn kids that crave sweets and regular "kids like sweets" thing, is that a sweet craver can eat a bag of M&M's with juice drink and want cupcakes and pop 10 minutes later. That was something i just couldn't get through the Peds heads. It wasn't normal. If your sweetie would eat brownies over green beans, that is normal for most kids, I agree!

 

On a different note, I'm just going to throw something out here. I may be sliding off of my rocker, but I'm wondering if you could comment on whether anything in these studies sound related in anyway to your daughters kidney condition? I guess the only thing I'm wondering if you could comment on, really, is the "morphogenesis" part. I'm pretty sure it was Deedee who mentioned something about a kidney glitch with her daughter, now you mentioned it, and i think there was one other Mom who mentioned a daughter with a similar problem (although I could be remembering an older post of yours).

 

Because of the recent discussion about sulfur and bony tumors, heparan sulfate.....this just caught my attention. Can't say what it means, if anything It just makes me wonder if there is anything here, especially if we have 3 little girls with any type of common kidney condition?

 

Wikipedia gives this definition of morphogenesis

 

Morphogenesis (from the Greek morphê shape and genesis creation) is one of three fundamental aspects of developmental biology along with the control of cell growth and cellular differentiation. Morphogenesis is concerned with the shapes of tissues, organs and entire organisms and the positions of the various specialized cell types.

 

 

These were two of the studies that i had saved

 

Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) has many functions including regulation of kidney morphogenesis and of neuron growth and survival in the enteric, sensory and central nervous systems. Reports of GDNF being used against Parkinson's disease in human patients have sparked intense clinical interest in GDNF signalling. We recently showed that GDNF signalling requires cell surface heparan sulphate glycosaminoglycans (Barnett et al., 2002, J. Cell Sci. 115, 4495-4503). Here we use exogenous modified heparins to determine those structural features required to inhibit GDNF signalling in ex vivo assays. 2-O-sulphate groups were found to impart high activity but were not absolute requirements for the inhibition of GDNF signalling. These findings may explain the similarities between the phenotypes of transgenic mice lacking GDNF and those lacking heparan sulphate 2-sulphotransferase, the enzyme responsible for achieving 2-O-sulphation of uronic acids in vivo.

Keywords: GDNF; Heparin; Heparan sulphate; HSPG; hs2st; Glycosaminoglycan; FGF, fibroblast growth factor; GAG, glycosaminoglycan; GDNF, glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor; GlcNAc, -acetylglucosamine; GlcA, glucuronic acid; GlcNSO, -sulphated glucosamine; HGF, hepatocyte growth factor; IdoA, Iduronic acid

 

and

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GDNF

 

Glial cell derived neurotrophic factor, also known as GDNF, is a small protein that potently promotes the survival of many types of neurons [1]

 

This gene encodes a highly conserved neurotrophic factor. The recombinant form of this protein was shown to promote the survival and differentiation of dopaminergic neurons in culture, and was able to prevent apoptosis of motor neurons induced by axotomy. The encoded protein is processed to a mature secreted form that exists as a homodimer. The mature form of the protein is a ligand for the product of the RET (rearranged during transfection) protooncogene. In addition to the transcript encoding GDNF, two additional alternative transcripts encoding distinct proteins, referred to as astrocyte-derived trophic factors, have also been described. Mutations in this gene may be associated with Hirschsprung disease.[1]

[Pamela Kay]

Thank you for the information about vaccines. I have not really researched that yet.

 

Most of what was stated in the studies you posted is a bit over my head but I will tell you about her kidney abnormality. She was born with dual ureters on her left kidney. This happens in about two percent of the population and really there is nothing wrong with that. With her though, one of her ureters on the left kidney was blocked which is fairly rare. Since she had two ureters one was draining the top half of her kidney and the other the bottom. Since one was blocked urine never fully emptied from her kidney making her more prone to infections.

 

Now see the normal person who has dual ureters would probably not even know so. My mom just had an operation and found out that she has them too. For all that I know my boys or myself could have it too.

 

Since I am on the subject of goofy things about my daughter she also has a tooth abnormality. Her left eye tooth took about 1 1/2 years longer to come in than on the other side. When it did it kind of looked like a tooth was growing on a tooth. We sent a picture in to her dentist and this is the response we got:

 

It looks to me to be a rudimentary extra cusp. Sometimes teeth will develop an extra cusp for no reason, but they're usually more pointed and require some grinding down. Jordan's is not a problem unless it's cosmetic concern. We'll take a closer look at Jordan's next regular visit. Please call if you have questions. Thanks, Jamie